Church of Our Lady before Tyn

Those twin spires — 80 meters of blackened Gothic stone bristling with subsidiary pinnacles — dominate the Old Town Square skyline and have done so since the 14th century. The Church of Our Lady before Tyn is Prague's most dramatic silhouette, a building that looks almost menacing from certain angles, especially when storm clouds gather behind its towers. "Before Tyn" refers to the medieval Tyn Courtyard behind it, where foreign merchants were taxed and housed.

The church has been a religious battleground for most of its existence. During the Hussite Wars of the 15th century, it became the main Hussite church in Prague — the radical reformers who rejected Catholic authority a century before Martin Luther. The great Hussite chalice, symbol of the communion cup the reformers demanded for laypeople, was mounted in gold on the church's facade. When the Catholics retook Prague after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, they melted down the golden chalice and recast it as a golden image of the Virgin Mary, which still adorns the church today. History written in metal.

Inside, you'll find the tomb of Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer who served as imperial mathematician to Rudolf II. Brahe died in Prague in 1601 under famously mysterious circumstances — legend says he died of a burst bladder because court etiquette prevented him from leaving a royal banquet to use the toilet. Modern analysis suggests mercury poisoning, though self-administered or otherwise remains debated.

The church is oddly difficult to photograph from ground level because buildings crowd right up to its base, hiding the entrance. You have to enter through an alleyway between shops — an approach that's either charmingly secretive or deeply annoying, depending on your mood.